Roque scores pair as Blue Devils chill Eskymos

Wednesday

Dec 11, 2013 at 10:10 AM

By KEITH SHELTONkshelton@dailypress.net

ESCANABA — The Escanaba Eskymos had a few lapses in defense, a few passes off the mark and a few missed opportunities Tuesday and it cost them as Sault High took advantage for a 4-2 hockey victory at Wells Sports Complex.

"I thought we played a very good first 8-10 minutes, but then we kind of sat back on our heels and got sloppy. Then we got into a little penalty trouble and had trouble killing of penalties," said Eskymos head coach Matt Hughes. "Probably the last 8-10 minutes or so, we got back to being ourselves. We played hard but we just ran out of time."

Sault High weathered the early storm and turned an early 2-0 deficit around with four unanswered goals to secure the victory.

"I thought we did a good job," said Blue Devils coach John Ferroni. "Halfway through the first, we figured it out a little bit and started coming out of zone a little easier. It was a good game all around."

The Eskymos started strong and their relentless opening rush payed off when Levi Wunder raced up the right side and fired a shot from the point. Sault goaltender Nickolas McKenzie gave up a juicy rebound and Stephen Wood hammered it home from the left side of the net 1:42 into the game.

Escanaba's next goal came nearly 10 minutes later when the Blue Devils committed a turnover right in front of the net. Esky's Nick Aird was there and and quickly flipped it in before McKenzie could react.

But the energy and intensity that Escanaba displayed in the first half of the first period went by the wayside in the last seven minutes of the period.

Blue Devils forwards that were intercepted in the neutral zone suddenly began to force their way through and gain quality scoring chances. Nicholas LaCross scored at 12:34 and the Eskymos carried a 2-1 goal into the second.

From that point on, the Blue Devils tightened up defensively and McKenzie stood tall on some key saves. Sault High scored on two powerplay goals in the second and third periods and outshot Escanaba the whole way.

McKenzie's greatest save came toward the end of the second period when Wunder raced in alone, deked out the defender and pulled a nice move in front of the next, but McKenzie wasn't fooled and made a nice pad save.

"I knew coming in, we'd have a little bit of a battle with the goaltenders," said Ferroni. "(McKenzie) is good and Nick LeMire is good. We probably had the edge on LeMire a little bit tonight on some of the shots we took. He probably wishes he had one back down there. Sometimes it comes down to goaltending."

McKenzie made 25 saves and LeMire made 29.

Sault High was playing without virtually its entire second line, including seniors' Andrew Glezen, Blake Mastaw and Chris Hazen and sophomore Tanner Reattoir.

"We lost some guys and they're key guys. We took some players that were playing on our fourth line and elevated them and they've responded hugely the last three games," said Ferroni. "It's remarkable. I can't really believe they've done that, but they've done a great job, those young boys. They're really helping us weather the storm until we can get those guys back in the lineup."

One of those players Abby Roque centered the Blue Devils' second line Tuesday night and scored two goals.

"Abby had a nice game tonight. She was good around the net. She's just a wonderful hockey player," said Ferroni. "She has big things at the end of the month. She was invited as one of the top-27 under-19 women in the country to their national camp, and she's only 15. If she makes the top 20 of those 27, she can go to Europe. She's showing why she's getting those opportunities."

Sault was also able to win the physical side of the game and the big Blue Devils seemed to wear down the Eskymos at times, before holding off their final furious push in the third period.

"You play a team like the Sault, they come at you pretty hard," said Hughes. "Those errors that you can make against another team aren't going to work against a team like the Sault, Houghton or Hancock. Give credit to Sault and their goalie. We had plenty of chances, we just couldn't capitalize."

Ferroni also gave plenty of credit to Escanaba.

"We had some concerns going in. This is a hard building to play in and the kids at Escanaba always play hard and emotional hockey. They've always done that for as long as I can remember," he said. "Matt has done a very nice job with that club. You can see that he's taking off where everything left off before. They have a nice hockey team with nice players. Esky has things going in a real nice direction."